Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a serious clinical problem with approximately eight thousands new cases every year. SCI occurs when a traumatic event results in damage to cells within the spinal cord or severs the nerve tracts that relay signals up and down the spinal cord. The most common types of SCI include contusion and compression. Other types of injuries include lacerations, and central cord syndrome (specific damage to the corticospinal tracts of the cervical region of the spinal cord). Severe SCI often causes paralysis and loss of sensation and reflex function below the point of injury, and also autonomic dysfunction affecting breathing, bowel and bladder control, and blood pressure. SCI patients are also prone to develop secondary medical problems, such as bladder infections, pneumonias, and skin ulcers.
Spinal cord damage often results in permanent disability due to the inability of axons within the central nervous system to regenerate following an injury. While recent advances in emergency care and rehabilitation allow many SCI patients to survive, methods for reducing the extent of injury and for restoring function are still limited. Acute treatment for SCI includes techniques to relieve cord compression, prompt (within 8 hours of the injury) drug therapy with corticosteroids such as methylprednisolone to minimize cell damage, and stabilization of the vertebrae of the spine to prevent further injury. Despite vigorous research into the use of inflammatory drugs, ionizing irradiation, elimination of inhibitory factors in the spinal cord, provision of neurotrophic factors, and cell transplantation, there currently is no cure for the neurological deficits seen following SCI.